Flight

Legs dangling off the ledge, Dongwoo held up a paper plane and slashed it through the air amidst the opulent rays of light. He would do the same for hours, just sitting there, contemplating when he could leave this place, and then stop in between intervals to laugh at himself when the realisation struck of his childishness.

"I wished I could fly..." 

He twitched, accompanied with a sigh, before letting the sixth airplane he'd folded today launch itself into flight. The wind carried it, bringing it further than the wired fences he could see from where he sat. But instead of the usual landing onto the twenty yard playground in the field at the rear of the school, it fell on a young female who Dongwoo had not seen making her way in his direction.

Shocked on his own account, Dongwoo leapt off the brick ledge and hid himself behind it, waiting.

In the short moments to come, her voice resounded, soft and chiming, or maybe that was because she was speaking so far from him. She muttered a few words of bewilderment, and he had the sudden urge to apologise, but by the time Dongwoo peeped his head from behind the ledge, she was already gone. Was she a student from the school? How come her voice didn't wash over him a sense of familiarity? It had been so long since anyone could have his curiosity peaked to this extent...

Dongwoo hadn't always been the social outcast; he just avoided the fun and reasoned with preferring the quiet. A large portion of him wanted to step outside his comfort zone, but there were always personal circumstances standing in his way. Since moving here with his foster family two years ago, he just knew he'd never be able to fit in again in the new neighbourhood. In fact, he'd been the wallflower for so long he didn't mind it anymore. But that didn't put him in any sort of disadvantage, no. It meant he observed more, listened more--there wasnt anything he couldnt expect so he grew (a little) more optimistic. There wasn't even a voice he couldn't put a face to in the school yard. 

Well, all except this one. 

Her voice was the prettiest he'd heard.

That being said, Dongwoo was determined to find out.

Maybe she'd come back tomorrow.

The next day, he sat by the same ledge as always, but it was the first time he was doing so for a very different purpose. Not to take time out of his social life to indulge in the silence and observe the beauty of the world, or to retain the peace within himself, but for the sake of an unlikely miracle. Could she have been the reason Dongwoo thought he would finally have a slight chance for a cure for his loneliness? He had a feeling she was.

With that mindset, a week passed.

Crinkling out an unfinished airplane to its former pattern before refolding it in his gentle grip, he made a distorted face at his appalling work, and decided to throw it off in the distance. Soon he lost count of the number of planes he'd folded, flew, the number of days  he'd watched lapse into oblivion in the palms of his hands. Maybe she really was never coming back. Watching the paper figurine soar past his mental boundaries, a false security settling back over him, for a second he was able to forget everything...

But fate must have been on his side that day, because the scenario that followed happened to greet him desirably.

There she was, the same lost look on her face, back bent, shoe laces untied, when the plane hit her. She picked up the plane, and examined it, picking it apart. Dongwoo cleared his throat accidentally, and that was all it took, for his life to change forever. She looked at him then, stupefied, an attractive aura about her Dongwoo could never quite shake off still prominent. Her orbs were unfathomable, as though they mirrored his own. As much as it was to his dislike, this time, he made sure he was seen. He couldn't remember the last time he had ever bothered letting that happen. His classmates were always just so keen on ignoring him.

"What are you doing up there?"

Dongwoo didn't know how else to respond. He rarely communicated with others, so he couldn't help but find their first meeting a tad bit awkward. It was always Dongwoo listening, never speaking.

"I.. like flying paper airplanes."

'Well done, captain obvious. Now she'd think you're boring too and walk away for good, like everyone else.'

But instead, in that moment, a state of shock claimed her petite face. If not framed by her sleek long hair, Dongwoo would have been able to discern the cute apples of her cheeks on her face, exuberating sunnily in her frantic rummage through her back pack.

She pulled out another paper airplane.

"This is yours too then, isn't it?"

"Oh hey, you kept it...!"

He waited, to be criticised for his weird behavior, as everyone had done in the past, but she did none of that. Instead, she handed both planes kindly back to him. They fell on his lap and in that moment Dongwoo felt a more overwhelming sense of security and warmth return within him than ever experienced before.

She had to arch her neck to see his response, and Dongwoo almost felt sorry.

"Why would you do that? Does it help to release stress or something, flying those planes?"

Actually, Dongwoo never thought about it that way. He just thought the image of the plane was cool, how they could cut through the breeze so effortlessly, support so many people... be so free. Rubbing the nape of his neck sheepishly, he looked to the swirls of blues and white dawning over them in the boundless sky and tried to come up with a response. Dongwoo even thought he saw a mockingjay in his peripheral vision perch on the tree sheltering them when he began to recite his interest, as though it had wanted to enjoy the secrets he was about to share, as well.

"I don't know... but they look... hopeful, sort of. They remind me I'm not completely held down..."

He fiddled with the planes now, and she nodded, omnisciently almost, obviously struggling with the clarity of the words of a stranger she'd met just moments ago. 

Unable to brush off the lonely times he'd experienced in his life, Dongwoo continued. "I.... wished I had more of a carefree, purposeful life, sometimes."

"Then I don't suppose you minded if I joined you too, then, right?"

That was what did it for him. Dongwoo couldn't believe what he was hearing. No one had ever volunteered to play with him before. So he was right! About her being his saviour. He gawked at her like an idiot.

"Did you want to come up here? I saved you a seat."

Dongwoo patted the unoccupied stone slab beside him.

She returned his gaze most generously. "You knew I was coming?"

"I see you sometimes, taking that path home."

Dongwoo gulped, hoping he hadn't just sounded like a total creep. She also looked like she was having trouble getting up on the ledge, so Dongwoo reached down to give her a helping arm. She thanked him.

"Oh. How come I never see you around school, then?" The fact that his uniform looked about the same as hers must have given it away.

He juggled his chances. Of course she wouldn't know someone like him. "Because I'm not the type to be seen..."

Her expression fell sullen, like she was having a hard time trying to decipher him. But she didn't let that stop her from wanting to be his friend. How could anyone resist such a cute, naive charm? She felt the world had wronged him, leaving him lonely for so long.

She beamed, deciding not to be part of that oblivious, unfortunate crowd. "Well, I saw you today, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess that's what made you special and different from the rest of them," Dongwoo mumbled, cheeks slightly rosier than before, his legs swinging quietly. He didn't know why but with her watching him he couldn't stop fidgeting.

"What? Who's special?"

Hearing her voice more clearly now, he centered his world back on the mischievous girl by his side, who was continuously scooting closer to him. "Oh, nothing! So, what's your name?"

She mimicked his sitting position. "____..."

"____." Dongwoo made sure to remember it. For some reason, he thought he would be able to make some very memorable attachments with the owner of this name over the coming summer holidays. Maybe she'd like to fly a kite with him some day, go bird watching, or fold more paper planes, anything. There was a sort of radiance emitting from her he couldn't quite describe. It was comfortable and welcoming, not harsh like the rest of the world. It was... nice for a change.

"I think that's a really cute name. I'm Dongwoo."

"Thank you, Dongwoo. That's the first time anyone's ever told me that."

And until the sun set that evening, that was how the two kept at it. Question, answer, question, answer; topped with infinite giggling, friendly gestures, plane folding, and a heartwarming comment here and there.

In the end, she still kept her smile, jumped off the ledge in a sudden clamour, and picked a dandelion from its roots on the grass patch separating them. Everything about her, from meeting her an hour ago till now, made Dongwoo feel magically energised... but that smile. Especially that smile. If Dongwoo hadn't been hearing about it about his own smile for these past years then he wouldn't have realised how true their words were when they had said smiles brought an untraceable sense of warmth from within.

"Well, thanks for inviting me today. I'd love to stay longer, but my mother will be worried. She thinks I'd be abducted by wolves and other scary things if I stay out for too long."

Dongwoo chuckled, while trying unselfishly to hide his disappointment after hearing her reason. It must have been nice, being able to embrace the love of a family. Dongwoo enjoyed the attention while it lasted. But when she asked what she asked next, he felt his hollow centre b full with a sort of unfamiliar anticipation again.

"Will you be here tomorrow, Dongwoo?"

Now there was something, someone, new he could hope for.

He exclaimed it, as though proudly, despite his throat feeling parched from all the speaking he'd already done. "Of course!"

"Good! I'll bring some paper of my own, too, and then maybe you can finish teaching me how to fold the some of those planes tomorrow, okay?"

Dongwoo nodded, eyes reducing to crescent-shaped slits. Their farewells proceeded for another few minutes, none of them wanting to part after such a lovely encounter. Deciding to walk her half way home, their laughter eventually melted into the distance as his eyes trailed the green backpack strapped onto her back, which sent her little silhouette off over the hills, and finally out of sight.

Returning to the ledge and caressing the paper planes she returned to him earlier, Dongwoo imaginarily thanked them for letting him meet someone who could potentially occupy such an irreplaceable space in his heart. And her, too, for finding him. So maybe he wasn't just going to grow old and disappear from the world when his time came, with no one to remember and be remembered by, like what the kids in his class would sometimes tell him. Holding the paper plane into the twinkling sky, suddenly hopeful, Dongwoo couldn't stop smiling.

He would see her again tomorrow.

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a/n: Dongwoo bb? outcast? ;n; never.